Amp Regrets - Fender Amp Blues

Fender Pro Sonic

Awhile back I did a post on a Guitar I kinda regret selling, The reverend Rocco. I've had a lot of Amps over the years and the one I really regret parting with was my Fender Prosonic 2x10. I've always loved Fender amps. They seemed to sound great with any guitar.

My first experience with a Fender Amp was in the late 1980’s. I had started with the beginner’s standard amp when I started playing guitar, A Gorilla. Yep. I worked my way up to a Peavey Rage, but something was always missing. One day at the music store I frequented and took lessons at, I heard my guitar teacher playing this great amp. It was a Fender M80. Covered in a grey felt like material and red knobs, it was amazing. I asked him how it sounded so good, and he commented that fender amps always had great reverb. That was it. Of all the effects I had at the time, Reverb was the one that I couldn't put my finger on. I scraped enough dough together to buy that amp very quickly. My guitar teacher almost bought it, I beat him by a couple of hours.

I had that amp for years, through college it was super reliable. Solid state, and the distortion wasn’t that bad. I worked my way up after that, with a Fender Ultra Chorus 2x12 stereo combo, and finally to the amp I kind a regret parting with. The Fender Prosonic.

Fender had started to move into some new amp territory and they had the Vibro king, and some other tube amps that were a step beyond what they had previously offered, as well as the Blues Deluxe and Deville’s But the Prosonic was a bit different. It had 2 gain stages that could be dialed in, with the second gain stage, kind of working like a saturation knob. I liked the drive channel on low settings, it was really nice and rootsy, in a gritty way. At full throttle, it really sang, and was very rich sounding overall. Cleans, Fuggaboutit, its a Fender, no need for a description there.

Size wise it was kind of close to the Deluxe Reverb, I’m betting part of the deal was getting a new amp that could fit into a cabinet that Fender was already producing. It looked like a "Bouteek" amp, with the chicken head knobs, and it was available in a few different colors.
while it was a 2 channel amp, it shared the same EQ, which was a bummer, but I made it work with minimal tweaking.

The only downfall was the 2x10 speaker configuration the combo came with. I was using that amp with a more pop like group, and when I transitioned into a new heavy rock band, it just didn’t cut it. I think I may have actually blown out a speaker at one point and had to have it replaced. I remember looking into swapping out the speaker baffle with one that would accept a 1x12, but I kind of shrugged it off. I think it was because there wasn’t a lot of info or DIY modification info out there. Eventually I went to another amp, a Hughes and Kettner Triamp. (That amp is a whole other story). I used the Prosonic as a backup, and I tried running it into a 2x12 cabinet, which did sound much better, but I was now bringing 2 big box like items to gigs, and that was tiring. The amount of gigging I did back then was a lot, and hauling a 2x12 and a 2x10 combo up stairs and in parking garages in the winter made it a back breaker. I eventually sold it and got a short chassis Mesa/Boogie MKIII head and used that with the 2x12.

On a lark, I started to do an on line search on them Both Reverb.com, and craigslist came up very short. Apparently these amps are really hard to find in the used market, and I can see why. Ideally I’d like to find one and see if I could fit a 12” speaker in it.

Fender did come out with an amp called the supersonic a few years back, I remember looking at it and while it did sound good, the amp’s cabinet was about 25% bigger than the prosonic, which gave room for a second channel's controls.

Right now I'm in a bit of an amp quandary. I ran this idea of finding a Prosonic combo, and modding it to fit a 1x12, but a buddy of mine kind of pointed out that after the cost of the amp (which can be upwards of $700) and modding it for a 1x12 speaker baffle, and getting a 1x12 speaker, never mind fixing any issues the amp may have I could be into it for over $1k. There are a lot of great 1x12 Tube combos with a similar gain structure and profile out there, that would fit my needs, and be at the same cost point. I could turn my efforts to look for the head version, and match it with a great sounding 1x12, but if I'm going to go with a head/cab situation, I'd like to get a small 1x12 and a lunchbox size amp head.

I don't know where this amp quest will end up, but I still miss that lil beast.

The State of Gibson

 

 

The internet has been a buzz with "What's happening/Going to happen" with Gibson. There's been a lot of stuff to note on this, but I wanted to make my comments on this with a preface.

A friend of mine commented recently that I'm not really pro Gibson. I kind of had to correct him on this. I've owned a couple of Les Pauls, a 1989 Studio in wine red, and a 2002 Les Paul Studio Limited Edition, in BASF green. Both were great guitars, but in both cases I parted with them because I needed more than 3 pickup sounds from a guitar, and both were a little heavy. I bought my last LP in 2004 (yes it sat in a music store for 2 years!) and parted ways with it in 2010. As was my 1989 LP, It was kind of heavy for my tastes, and I really like the ability to have some single coil sounds. I added up the costs of changing the pickups and electronics to accommodate this, and then thought, well why not do a tone pros bridge and tailpiece, and some locking tuners. I liked this guitar, however, not enough to sink $500 into it. Yes I've put more into other guitars, but I couldn't justify it for this LP.

Right now if I had a guitar wish list, a 335 would be on there. In fact I've commented that I have been jonsing for a great sounding single P90 pickup mahogany bodied LP Jr. So I'm not really anti Gibson. I don't know how I got tagged for that. Could be I'm known to favour PRS guitars, and because of that Single cut lawsuit situation that had PRS & Gibson squaring off in court. PRS prevailed in that arena, and maybe that's why I got tagged as anti Gibson.

Seeing any company go out of business is never a good thing. There are people that work there, not just factory workers, but IT, Housekeeping, maintenance, marketing, graphics. Think of all the people that work in your building, whether they work for your company directly or from a building management perspective, it adds up. Speaking as a person that worked for a company that shut down a division, and put 100+ workers out in the cold, it's not fun. Now think of all the subcontractors, vendors, suppliers, and again it adds up to people loosing out.

The big digs I've heard people throw out is Gibson's quality control, or lack of it. I can speak from experience as my 2002 LP had some cosmetic issues, specifically the side marker dots on the 12th fret looked as if, well I did them..It was purely a cosmetic thing that didn't bother me.

I've heard horror stories of people buying a Gibson guitar and stuff like pickups were barely soldered in, nuts being improperly cut. First off, if you're gonna plunk down any money, do the diligence. Inspect everything you possibly can, and don't get caught up in the "I gotta buy it" feel. I personally know a couple of guys that buy several guitars a year, just as an impulse buy or the "I have to get this" situation. Take a step back, a deep breath, and really think about it. If you notice a tuner is bent, or a nut is rough or anything is off, walk away. if you ordered it on line, and it's not to your satisfaction, send it back. You're the final QC check on any purchase.

Now people do comment that they love Gibson, but there is room for design improvement. The Neck angle and headstock joint is prone to breaking if hit hard enough. There are different scarf joint designs that would look the same, and be more stable. The Alex Lifeson Les Paul, has a fantastic Neck/body joint that is vastly superior to the original design as well, which would be great on any LP, but Gibson keeps their traditional design on most models. The completion/copycats seem to take the chance to make it better, as I've seen some that have embraced these changes. I've been kind of jonsing for a LP again, but every time I start to go down this path, I seem to find a company that does that same thing a LP does, but, for lack of a better term....better than Gibson has been known to make, and at a better value.

Gibson also has some issues with their actual product lines, with multiple variants. Pick a  model of one of their guitars and go to their website and try to find that actual guitar in less than 5 minutes. It's kind of a quagmire (giggity) of models. Less is more and there are some ways to streamline things. My idea would be to make separate product lines

1-classics, made as they were in the 50's. Same as it ever was. heck, make them at upscale prices, limited editions if need be.

2-moderns, modern construction, newer pickup options and choices, variants on the classics. How about a LP studio with locking tuners and coil taps? maybe a better headstock joint, and a more ergonomic heel/body joint? There is a way to have a foothold in the past and still take steps to be contemporary. It's not easy, but it can be done.

If you're gonna do variants, make them special editions or limited runs. I can't see an actual need for a Gibson LP studio in see through green, mini humbuckers and a bigsby being a full on year round production model. It's a variant of a variant of a variant.

Gibson did try to bring modern technology in from time to time, the firebird with the built in effects, as well as the Robo tuners. They kind of missed the mark on both of them. in the mid 90's they were supposedly going to make a Robbie Kreiger SG, with a carbon fiber neck. I'm not a super huge fan of The Doors, but that proposed guitar really interested me. There's plenty of room there for the purists, and those who want that classic brand, without the classic headaches.

Now Gibson bought a few other brands over the years, Steinberger and Kramer being two of them. I'll admit, when they bought Steinberger, a very 80's guitar with the headless design and carbon fiber construction, and not far after that the vintage market boomed, and Gibson classics dominated. But Steinberger even in the 1980's was a niche instrument and probably could have held it's own even in a limited capacity. Travel Guitars are always a sell, and Keisel, as well as Strandberg, has proven that there are a ton of people that want the headless design.

Kramer also dominated the 1980's, but when they closed up shop, the shred era was coming to an end. The brand went dormant, and Gibson bought them. They were only available on line, but the prices were reasonable. Considering the popularity of the EVH Guitars and the fact that there are players that still want that style, especially over the last 5 years or so, I wonder why Gibson didn't try to run with it, or at least Re-launch it. More than likely Gibson will sell off these brands as part of a financial re-org.

I wish I had an answer to these questions. Ideally I'd love to see Gibson pull out of this nose dive, but based on how they handle their business in both large and small details, it's certainly uncertain. I don't have a solution for their problems, if I was an actual expert, I'd be working as a consultant for these companies and pulling down some good bank doing something I love to do; talk guitars. But I don't, I'm the same Monday morning quarterback as everyone else out there.

As of this writing Gibson has filed for chapter 11, which as I understand it is a re-organization step. Meaning they sort out their debts, sell assets they don't need, and try to move on. The big scary step is chapter 7; liquidation.

One factory that is busy these days is the rumour mill, as to what will happen. in the 21st century, I'm finding that the standard doesn't apply in anything. There is a rumour that Joe Bonamassa might buy, or somehow take some controlling ownership/management. It's a rumour that's out there, and makes sense. He's a big guitar personality with some serious guitar cred. He may have to liquidate some of his guitar collection to pay for it, but might be worth the price.